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Our Union, SEIU 775, represents more than 55,000 long-term care workers providing quality home care, nursing home care, and residential services in Washington, Montana, and Alaska.
Since being founded in 2002, by uniting together, standing strong, and making our voices heard, caregivers have doubled wages – and experienced caregivers earn even more. But we’re not stopping there! Every time we go back to the bargaining table, we’re fighting for better wages, healthcare, PTO, paid family leave, L&I, retirement, and the right for those we care for to live dignified lives.
Not only does being a part of our Union mean you have benefits, but you also have representation and rights. Whether you’ve experienced issues with your paycheck or had unfair terminations or disciplinary action against you in your career with CDWA, the State of Montana, your agency, or your nursing home — you have the right to representation should any of this happen to you.
Our Union is made of and for caregivers, from our democratically elected board, to the members of our bargaining teams. Caregivers make our Union strong.
Our Mission
Our mission is to unite the strength of all caregivers, to create a better life for ourselves and those we care for, and to lead the way to a more just and equitable world.
Our Vision
We are motivated by our vision of the future:
- Where caregivers and all workers can support ourselves and our families
- Where we can build a life of dignity for those we care for
- Where caregiving is a respected profession that attracts and retains a high-quality workforce
- Where all workers have the opportunity to join a union to improve their lives
- Where everyone has quality, affordable healthcare
- Where we create a more equitable, inclusive, and healthy world for all
Our Values
- Unity – Our strength comes from our unity as caregivers and solidarity with other movements
- Dignity – Our Union is the pathway to earn respect and dignity for our work
- Leadership – We will lead with integrity and give everyone the opportunity to be a leader in our Union
- Equity – We will lift up the voices of all caregivers, especially those from communities with the least access to power
- Accountability – To win, we must hold those in power accountable and be accountable to each other
- Persistence – We are relentless in our fight for our vision of the future
Our Goals
- Make Caregiving a Good Career
- Build Power for Caregivers and all Workers
- Win Universal Access to Quality Health and Long-Term Care
- Fight for Justice for All
Make Caregiving a Good Career
In the last decade, we have made incredible progress to lift tens of thousands of caregivers out of poverty.
Washington State home care workers in our Union have the best wages and benefits in the country – making an average of more than $20 per hour in 2022, with affordable healthcare and the only retirement benefit of its kind in the country for home care workers. Nursing home workers in our Union have made huge progress, also getting to $20 per hour but still fighting for affordable healthcare and safer staffing. Montana caregivers are still organizing for more power but have also seen great improvements in wages and healthcare since joining our Union.
But even with our progress, too many long-term care workers continue to struggle with low wages and inadequate benefits – and that’s not right. The caregiving workforce is overwhelmingly women and disproportionally Black women, Indigenous women, women of color and Immigrants. Supporting home care workers supports families and entire communities. We deserve to be treated, and compensated, like the healthcare professionals we are.
To Make Caregiving a Good Career, we must win:
- Economic Security. All caregivers should be able to comfortably provide for themselves and their families.
- Affordable Healthcare. All caregivers need affordable health coverage they can count on for themselves and their families.
- Retirement. Ensure that all caregivers have a secure retirement by building on our first-in-the-nation retirement benefit.
By the end of 2025, we plan to:
- Fight for, win, and enforce a 2023-2025 IP contact with agency parity that includes healthcare coverage caregiver’s kids; increases retirement contributions; and raises wages to $21 to $25 per hour.
- Win initial funding for healthcare for Nursing Home Workers.
- Win wages of at least $18 per hour for Montana caregivers.
“Secure funding and increased wages and benefits are key to ensuring we as caregivers are taken care of today, and that we will have a strong caregiving workforce in the future. The people we care for deserve to live in dignity, and those of us caring for them deserve the dignity of pay, benefits, and protections equal to the importance of our profession.”
Susie Young, AP
Spokane, WA
Build Power for Caregivers and All Workers
The 55,000 caregivers of SEIU 775 have built one of the most powerful Unions in the Northwest. Every year thousands of caregivers join together to welcome new members into our Union, advocate for ourselves and those we care for, and share our stories with the world. Thousands more donate every month to our political accountability fund to elect lawmakers who support caregivers and UNelect lawmakers who don’t.
In a country where union membership is under attack, caregivers in Washington, Montana, and Alaska are fighting to make sure they can join SEIU 775 and our vision of a just future. We are continuing to support caregivers trying to organize in states around the country, as well as supporting workers organizing in other industries in our states.
We accomplish extraordinary victories for working people when we unite our power with other unions and our allies.
To Build Power for Caregivers and All Workers, we will:
- Build Member Leadership. Continue to sign up new members and ensure everyone can be active in our Union in the language of their choice.
- Grow our Union. Help long-term care workers across the Northwest, including in nursing homes in Montana and Washington, and Personal Care Attendants in Alaska, unite into our Union.
- Work in Solidarity. Support the unprecedented union organizing across the country and build strong relationships with organizations that share our vision, including organizations of seniors and people with disabilities.
By the end of 2025, we plan to:
- Reach 55,000 dues paying members while training new leaders and activists.
- Win groundbreaking organizing campaigns, including welcoming Alaska caregivers and more nursing home workers into our Union.
- Make sure all members can participate and be leaders in their language by providing more interpretation and translation.
“It took a lot of work — I mean years and years and years — of work to get to this point, but this year we doubled our homecare membership in Montana. Our Union started organizing in Montana back in 2007 and I know there are caregivers who have been fighting for this since the beginning. We’ve never stopped fighting to make sure caregiving is a job that’s treated with dignity and respect. I know what a difference the Union has made in my life, so it’s rewarding to talk with other caregivers about our Union.”
Delphine Camarillo, AP
Billings, MT
Win Universal Access to Quality Health and Long-Term Care
In Washington, we have helped build the best long-term care system in the country, with high training standards, choices for consumers, and the groundbreaking social insurance program WA Cares. More people in Washington and Montana have access to healthcare because of our work helping to expand Medicaid. But we will need many more trained and well-paid workers to provide care for people with disabilities and our growing senior population.
Over the next 10 years, the number of people who need long-term care will rapidly outpace the caregiver workforce’s current growth. That means clients and family members may not be able to access the care they need in the location they want, and nursing home ratios of residents to caregivers could become even worse. There are real gaps in our long-term care system, and we must fight to ensure the people we care for can build a life of dignity.
To Win Universal Access to Quality Health and Long-Term Care, we must fight for:
- A Stronger Workforce. Strengthen and stabilize the in-home caregiving and nursing home workforce.
- Expand Funding. Fight to expand access to Care along with consistent and adequate funding while electing and holding accountable politicians who support increasing funding for long-term care.
- More Choice. Champion real and proven options for community-based long-term care.
By the end of 2025, we plan to:
- Win new accountability measures at the federal level to ensure long-term care funding is used to support caregivers and the people we care for.
- Support the successful implementation of Washington Cares.
- Ensure caregivers are paid the correct amount and on time.
Fight for Justice for All
There is no justice until there is justice for all. The majority of caregivers are women, and predominately Black women, Indigenous women, women of color and Immigrant women. Because of who we are, and who we care for, time and again care work has been left out of laws that protect other healthcare workers. The legacies of racism and sexism mean we constantly have to fight for the world that we, and those we care for, deserve.
That world sees our clients, our communities and ourselves living the best lives we can. Day in and day out we know what our clients need to survive, and more and more that means knowing how to support our clients and our communities when the worst happens – a heat wave, a wildfire, a “once in a lifetime” storm, a pandemic.
We are the essential workers that keep people safe. We need to create communities where we are valued and respected.
To achieve our vision of Justice for All, we must fight for:
- Equity. Fight against injustice in all forms, create communities where we are valued and included for our diversity, and center those with the least access to power in all of our work.
- Economic Justice. Fight for living wages, affordable housing, accountability for corporate greed, and a tax system where the rich pay their fair share.
- Climate Readiness. Help prepare our clients, residents, and communities for extreme weather and work towards a world where the air, water, and climate are safe for all of us.
By the end of 2025, we plan to:
- Launch a program to support our members and the people they care for through extreme weather events.
- Win hundreds of millions of dollars for new low-income housing.
- Work to elect politicians that support our vision, with a particular focus on electing a pro-worker Governor in Washington and on turning around the alarming anti-worker trend in the Montana State Legislature.
“We are passionate about the work that we do and the people that we take care of. As caregivers who are Black and brown and immigrants, we’ve had to fight for everything. We have to fight to be seen and heard and recognized. And our commitment to ourselves and those we care for is what drives us to make change. We keep doing this work because we know what’s best for us and what’s best for the people we care for.”
Manuela “Nelly” Prieto, IP
Sunnyside, WA
SEIU 775 Anti Racism, Anti-Oppression Statement
The caregiving workforce is overwhelmingly women and disproportionally Black women, Indigenous women, Asian women, Latina women, women of color and immigrants. Because of who we are, caregiving work has been excluded from many basic workplace protections. Caregivers are still struggling to earn a living wage and respect due to systemic racism and sexism.
At SEIU 775, our mission is to unite the strength of all caregivers, to create a better life for ourselves and those we care for, and to lead the way to a more just and equitable world. We cannot fulfill our mission and win economic justice without working to dismantle systemic racism and other forms of prejudice and oppression. We commit to the institutional change necessary to dismantle these structures both within our organization and throughout the broader society. We will continue to work to fight against prejudice, oppression, and racism anywhere we encounter it.
We are not a group of people who lets the world happen to us.
We take the time to think about where we are, where we want to go, and the work it takes to get there.
We set goals. We build plans. We are unafraid to make changes.
We fight and make the seemingly impossible, possible.
Our 2022 Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals reflect our plans the future. The fights we will undertake. The changes we will make.
Since we built SEIU 775 – the caregiver’s Union – we have the best standards for caregivers in the nation, we’ve passed historic legislation, and we’ve grown to include caregivers from Montana, and soon to be, Alaska.
Our wins didn’t happen by accident. They didn’t happen without a fight.
They happened because we worked together. Because we set goals and made plans. Because we are unafraid.